Man Charges False Arrest In Serial Rapes Of Asians

November 07, 2000|By Matt O'Connor, Tribune Staff Writer.

As pressure mounted in June for Chicago police to find a rapist targeting Asian women, a Northwest Side man alleged in a federal lawsuit Monday that he was awakened inside his apartment by several officers with their guns drawn, taken to Grand Central Area police headquarters and interrogated about his sex life.

The suit by Sandy Crawford of the 5400 block of East River Road charged that police, suspecting him in the highly publicized attacks on Asian women in Chicago and the north and northwest suburbs, ransacked his apartment searching for evidence and "paraded" him past neighbors handcuffed and only partly clothed.

A little more than a month later, police arrested Mark Anthony Lewis for the serial rapes.

Neither Crawford nor his lawyer could be reached for comment Monday on the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

Officer Matthew Jackson, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department, said he hadn't seen the lawsuit and had no comment.

According to the lawsuit, Crawford was asleep on a couch in his home June 26 when he was awakened by three officers who entered without a warrant and with their guns drawn and pointed at him.

Eventually four more officers joined in the search of the apartment, which, according to the suit, left his residence "torn apart, ransacked and ravaged."

Two of Crawford's friends who happened to come by during the search were forced to sit on the kitchen floor for up to 90 minutes before officers let them go, the suit alleged.

At Grand Central headquarters, police "demanded" Crawford submit to a saliva test, and he was repeatedly questioned about his relationship with his wife and his "taste in women," including his feelings toward Asian women, the suit said.

Officers became angry when he declined to sign a form saying he consented to the search of his apartment, according to the suit.

Crawford was charged with a misdemeanor offense for possessing a pellet gun discovered during the search, but those charges were later dismissed, the suit said.

When Crawford's wife, Donna, returned home, officers lied to her in order to search her vehicle and then questioned her about her relationship with her husband, the suit alleged.

Unaware of her husband's arrest, Donna Crawford found the apartment ransacked, thought the residence had been burglarized and "got very scared," the suit said.

The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages for Crawford and his wife because of false arrest and emotional trauma.